Dont write off offsetting tactics

“Companies rank savings measures starting with “no regret” measures, which provide an actual saving, all the way to zero (where the costs of implementing them and the savings balance out). Then you get the measures from about $5-$15/20 a tonne range for cutting carbon. Beyond that, a company will find it very difficult to justify the expenditure.”

Which is where carbon offsetting comes in. “At about $10 a tonne, offsetting can make sense to a company wanting to keep reducing its carbon footprint.”

Offsetting is seen as a probable tactic for any port aiming to become carbon neutral – such as New York/New Jersey and Belfast. The Panama Canal is among these. “It’s almost inevitable that the canal will become an offsetter ,” says Jem Porcaro, citing the cost of buying credits versus the huge costs of hundreds of dollars a tonne of achieving neutral status.

Greenstone agrees: “Offsetting is not a necessarily bad thing. It’s only when someone says ‘make that carbon thing go away’, throws a million dollars at it and says ‘I don’t have to think about it anymore’ that it’s open to criticism. But there is a positive aspect if it ends in carbon reduction.”